Avalanche at The Canyons
- Thread starter Admin
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icelanticskier
New member
dangerous place to be with such a delicate snowpack. unfortunate but, was bound to happen sooner than later. like always will certainly raise avy awareness. was up skiing upper beartrap a few years back in moderate conditions keeping the angles low when i heard that familiar sound and it wasn't the powderbirds. death and missing in the same area off of 9990.
too bad. keep it low.
rog
too bad. keep it low.
rog
What happens liability-wise when the slide occurs in-bounds? I assume the "skiing is inherently a dangerous sport" clause holds little water with litigators.
jamesdeluxe":pspghn2d said:
Well, we're of course getting ahead of ourselves here as the incident just occurred yesterday, but for the sake of discussion we'll discuss another hypothetical situation in which litigation is filed. Just like anything else, any potential Plaintiff needs to prove negligence on the part of the ski area. Simply because the hill slid does not mean a prima facie case of negligence. If the ski area took all reasonable precautions, as determined by a jury after hearing testimony of experts for both sides, a defense verdict is entirely within the realm of possibility. Jury verdicts, however, are a crap shoot, and sympathy for the Plaintiff would certainly come into play here, a factor that occasionally will award damages to the Plaintiff's estate even in the absence of liability, i.e. the jury will work hard to "find" liability on the Defendant to award damages.
In this instance, should the matter be litigated it would be venued in the Third District Court of Utah in Summit County, which is a moderately conservative venue compared to the rest of the country but somewhat liberal by Utah's more conservative standards. If the Plaintiff is from outside of Utah that could cause any action to be moved into Federal Court, which is even more conservative as the rules of evidence are somewhat more restrictive.
EMSC
Well-known member
Very much so. I'll be quite interested to hear what the investigators from the Utah Avalanche Center have to say about things. I suspect the heavy natural snow in oct/early Nov followed by the very warm mid/late nov will be a big factor in much of the west this season for avalanche conditions.
Just as concerning to me is that after a 20 or so year absence of open terrain, in-bounds avalanches this is now the 3rd one in the last couple of years at ski areas (A-basin, Las Vegas, & now Canyons). It would seem the industry is either too confident in it's knowledge of slides, or there are more extreme weather situations hitting ski country causing slides in new or different than previously seen snowpack conditions (a-basin if I recall falls into that category per the final report on that from CAIC).
And what a horrendous accident for all involved at this time of year.
mikesathome
New member
I also recall Mammoth Mountain in April had a slide in-bounds last year, no one was killed.
I guess the bottom line is, humans can help reduce the chances of avalanches, but never eliminate them.
Very sad story, I hope the 11 year old can recover.
I guess the bottom line is, humans can help reduce the chances of avalanches, but never eliminate them.
Very sad story, I hope the 11 year old can recover.
The Mammoth slide on Climax was in April 2006, one week after the 3 patrollers died in the carbon dioxide asphyxiation accident.
Last Friday there were 2 in-bounds slides at Mammoth, on Wipe Out and Paranoid. In both cases the slopes had just been opened and had been skied by 15-20 people before sliding. No one was caught in either slide.
Last Friday there were 2 in-bounds slides at Mammoth, on Wipe Out and Paranoid. In both cases the slopes had just been opened and had been skied by 15-20 people before sliding. No one was caught in either slide.
In CA you have to prove liability (Negligence, intentional, etc.), causation (who is at fault) and was there damage or loss. I do not believe that any ski area can 100 % control for avalanches. An avalanche can start from an out of bounds area and to to the bounded area. From my view, the vast majority of skiers do not respect or know about the skiers respect and responsibiity code. They are looking for a mindless high like a drink or a pill, to get the high of skiing. I have seen too much!
Admin":vga7djmr said:
This is a case in 2005 that took a youth off his chairlift either by the air blast or avalanche itself in bounds. He was on a chairlift! They had blasted and the snow did not move. So they opened the area????? Link: http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/ ... 38169.html
The family sued. Link: below:
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/news/20 ... sued_x.htm
The family sued. Link: below:
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/news/20 ... sued_x.htm
CWHappyRN":3lg21upt said:
That's the principle of tort law. That's not just California, but every state and every country that like ours has a civil system based on British common law. California, though, is on average much more Plaintiff oriented than most states. As I described above, Utah is much more conservative.
CWHappyRN":3lg21upt said:
Just try convincing a jury of that.
The dude that died was a ski patrol from one account at Grand Junction, CO for the worst irony.
The air blasting the kid of the chair was the Ski Las Vegas accident I think. Adam said that the skiers on Paranoid before its avalanche last Friday encountered several blast craters from ski patrol that had not made the snow move.